Scott Alexander

The problem with even talking about this topic at all is the knee-jerk response of, yeah, just another old man complaining about the kids today, the same way everyone has since Gilgamesh.

Shake your fists at the clouds, dude.

So yes, I'm ready to hear that.

Go right ahead.

Because people need to know.

Most of our students are functionally illiterate.

This is not a joke.

By functionally illiterate, I mean unable to read and comprehend adult novels by people like Barbara Kingsolver, Colson Whitehead, and Richard Powers.

I picked those three authors because they're all recent Pulitzer Prize winners, an objective standard of serious adult novel.

Furthermore, I've read them all and can testify that they are brilliant, captivating writers.

We're not talking about Finnegan's Wake here.

But at the same time, they aren't YA, Romantasy, or Harry Potter either.

Things have changed.

Ted Joyer describes modern students as checked-out, phone-addicted zombies.

Troy Jollimore writes, Quote, I once believed my students and I were in this together, engaged in a shared intellectual pursuit.

That faith has been obliterated over the past few semesters.

End quote.

Faculty have seen a stunning level of disconnection.

It is getting harder and harder, and we don't know what to do.

End quote.